Service and commercial buildings today face a lot of indoor air problems. The main causes of problems are microbes and their metabolites, particles, fibres, radon, VOCs, carbon dioxide, flue gases and dust. These harmful substances come from the outside air, building structures, soil, ventilation system and users. The indoor air problems caused by all this result in a lot of sickness absences, as well as a decrease in work ability and quality of life. In addition, users incur a lot of costs and inconvenience from repairs, demolitions and temporary space solutions for buildings. The aim of the Future Spaces research project has been to develop a service concept for the renovation and condition management of service and commercial buildings.
In addition to the construction and building technology companies involved in the project, as well as city and municipal representatives, the public event was attended by participants from other parties involved in the design, implementation and maintenance of buildings. After the general presentation of the project, the presentation of the research results was divided into two parallel sessions, one of which focused on the conditions of the indoor environment and the other on the business models and structures of the service concept.
The final conference featured a total of 26 presentations on the most important research results in the different areas of the project. The presented results will be further refined for future publications. The results of the project will be published in various publication formats, such as theses, conference articles and peer-reviewed international journal articles.
The detailed programme of the conference can be downloaded here.
The presentations of the public conference are available here.
Future Spaces is a project carried out in 2020-2022, in which three research groups from Tampere University (Building Physics, Aerosol Physics, Knowledge Management) and VTT, as well as many companies, international universities and research institutes, have participated. The principal investigator of the study and the coordinator of the research part has been Professor Juha Vinha (TAU Building Physics) and the project manager has been Doctoral Researcher Petteri Huttunen (TAU Building Physics). From the aerosol physics research group, the persons in charge have been assoc. Prof. Topi Rönkkö and D.Sc. Panu Karjalainen, and from the Knowledge Management Research Group, Prof. Hannu Kärkkäinen and Doctoral Researcher Karan Menon. Vice President Tuula Mäkinen has acted as the principal investigator for VTT’s part and Hannu Salmela as the project manager. The coordinator of the entire project has been Jari Erkkilä from Tuotekehitys Oy Tamlink. The total funding for the research part has been approximately EUR 1.8 million, and the funding of the entire project has included the companies’ own product development projects for a total of approximately EUR 3.7 million. The project has been funded by Business Finland, Tampere University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, as well as the companies involved. The project is part of Business Finland’s Indoor Air Quality ecosystem (IAQe).
Project website www.futurespace.fi
Further information and contacts
Principal Investigator, Professor Juha Vinha, juha.vinha@tuni.fi
Project Manager, M.Sc. (Tech.) Petteri Huttunen, petteri.huttunen@tuni.fi